We're moving

So any how, now that we have your attention: Yes we are moving. After many weeks of being stressed out trying to find a place to live we finally found the right one.
Our new house is on a dairy farm in the town of Duvall. [accent over the U] the dairy part is a 1/4 mile up the road from us so minimal stench. Behind our house is about 60 acres of corn fields. The house is an old farm house that was built in the early 40's. I t is all new on the inside and is significantly bigger than our current abode. The rent is way cheaper and there are no utilities, thereby reducing our expenses by about 1/3!!
It is soo neat. There is lots of space for kids to run around. We have a huge veggie garden and there is even space for our chickens. We got 3 new chicks on Wednesday! One thing that I love about our new home is that it is right on Snoqualmie river. We have fire pit on the banks of the river and overlooking the Cascade mtn's. Here you see a pic of my kids standing in what will be our new garden. It looks like American Gothic doesn't it?
We will probably be moving the 20th of this month. If not it will be the 27th.
I am soo excited to have this blessing of living in the country. It will be a simpler life and one that is much more in harmony with mother nature and the cycles of life. Plus did you see how gorgeous it is?!

The weather yesterday was super nice sunny and about 64. Love it. El nino winters rock.


Well that's about it for now. Work is still sucking, but at least I have a good family to keep my focus on what is important.
We love you guys and hope to have you come out and visit us. We will so miss the fine members of our church. we hope that we can continue to say in contact with you.


I'm tired, Good Night

Real stuff

We actually have stuff to report on this time...
We had a bobcat sighting in our backyard (see short video above). Our chickens survived the ordeal, but Caleb thinks it would be ALMOST worth it to lose a chicken to see a bobcat in action. It was cool to see a bobcat so close (20 ft. away), but it really concerned Fern. (We weren't in the backyard--we were in the kitchen--just so you know that she didn't have anything to be concerned about...) And then a couple of nights later we saw 2 coyotes just a couple blocks from our house. I guess this warm weather is bringing them out of hiding.

It's been sunny and warm the whole winter (yah, no rain in Seattle...weird!) It even got into the high 50s /low 60s this past week. If only every winter could be like this...

The kids have a new game called "lion". It involves Henry pretending like he is a lion, chasing Fern, and Fern running to daddy's arms saying (in her best dramatic voice) "saaaave me daddy, saaaaave me!" and then tells daddy to whack the lion. It's pretty fun to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8luKxrYiOU One of their other favorite pasttimes is playing this song over and over and over and over and over....(Henry figured out how to make the CD player repeat...) and dance around the house wearing assorted dress up clothes (I'm not sure where the dressing up came about for this particular song...it just happens): tights on the head, several shirts, skirts, socks (on hands, feet, multiple layers), diapers on head, whatever can be found. Fern has also discovered that swimsuits fit over several layers--no matter what they are... One time she had so much on her head that she couldn't see where she was going and walked into a chair--she doesn't put things over her face so much anymore.

Valentine's day was fun. We celebrated it on Saturday. First of all, Caleb picked up balloons for the kids--as in one for each of them. Those balloons received more play time than anything else for a week. (This would have continued longer, but Henry's floated out the door at some unknown time...) It was fun seeing their imagination. Henry turned his into many contraptions for lifting, transporting, etc. He is very mechanically minded. He also invented games of trying to catch the balloon with a piece of rope and a binder clip...anyway, it was fun. For lunch we had a "Seattle picnic". It was raining, so we all got into the good old Trooper and drove to a nearby park that is not well used. We then folded the back seat down which made a bed of sorts and set up blankets and lots of pillows. Then we put the laptop on top of a milk crate and watched "The Love Bug". It was kind of like a nest and was very snuggly. It was a novel way to spend the afternoon.

After my class on how to ferment food (OK, so I took it for Caleb...I found that I can't stomach most of this stuff...but I really liked the sour dill pickles...Caleb really likes sauerkraut, so I will see if I can successfully make it :) ) we headed over to UW arboretum to go canoeing. Henry wasn't so sure about this adventure when we encountered the wake of larger vessels and wanted to know when we were going back. After we got into some shallow water where we could see turtles and the bottom of the lake he started loosening up and even liking it. Caleb explained to him that there is something difficult about everything that is worthwhile. We asked him if he was enjoying himself, to which he responded 'yes'. We pointed out that he is one that kind of needs to warm up to things, to which he responded, "yah, I'm like a toaster."

As for how we are doing:
no job until April (commission only...eek!)
car broke down (Caleb fixed it for $30!!! woohoo for a husband that can fix stuff!)
landlord is selling our house (but not sure how soon...so not sure how stressed we should be)
but....we do have unemployment, we have a car, we have a roof to live under, we have food stamps to keep us fed, and cute kids to keep our mind off the other stuff.

(By the way, if you like any of the pictures, you can click on it to bring up a bigger version and then you can right click and save it.)

Thank you for leaving comments-- we love hearing from you :)

Fern

I love this snapshot of Fern--she picked out the clothes and they all coordinate in an interesting way. (Her hair is in "reindeers" which are ponytails with braids. It could have been in "hoppies" or "meows" or a "Jenna", but not this day.)

The other day I was cleaning up around the house and thought I'd come up with an ingenious idea...I suggested to Fern that she could be Cinderella and I could tell her what to do. She thought for a split second and said with a smile, "No, I be mad stepmother. You be Cinderella."

?!!!

Pretty quick for a 3-year old...mom needs to figure out new methods...

p.s. tooth announcement:
Henry's bottom right front tooth=gone :)

Important tooth announcement

Nothing much in the new year

So just to get our new year and newly updated blog kicked off, here is our first post.
First off, our new family picture was not taken in our home but in a friends who is pro-photographer. It is a nice pic, and shows our family at this stage. I actually like our previous years outdoor pics better but we didn't have time to do one this year.
We spent New Years at my (caleb) parent's home in Ephrata, WA. we had a nice time and ate WAAAY to much good food. Driving home on Monday the 4th was quite the ordeal as we unknowingly timed our departure with a huge storm. (it came in much larger than they predicted) At times we couldn't see the road, but out trusty Trooper got us through. Man I love that truck.
We now have Christmas taken down, and my class has started back up. I am trying to figure out what to do for employment from here on out. I am contemplating starting my own design firm, although the "safe" and easy way would be to find another company to work for. I don't know.
Any how, we have lots of projects to get done around the house and I continue to have lots of time with my wonderful kids.

I am growing continuingly worried about the sate of our "union" I say union because we are supposed to be unified, and we are supposed to have a government that represents us. But this health care reform deal has shown that our government is corrupt to the core. Congressmen were bought out with shady backroom deals and coercion. The final ratifying of this bill will take place in secret without any Republicans and half of the Democrats and NO C-span. What is going to happen in there that they need secrecy from the American people. I think that the mass of Americans have been apathetic and silent for too long and I fear that we may not wake up and speak out until it is absolutely too late. It's already the 111th hour and the 59th minute. I think that I will take this free time I have to call my congressman and speak my mind. I would encourage you all to do the same.

Any how this is a depressing subject, and I wish that you will have a happy and prosperous new year.

Enjoy a pic of Henry's latest development.

Christmas gratitude

So we have had a few things happen over the last several weeks. First of all my Henry had his 6th birthday. I can't believe that I have a 6 yr old. Henry is the coolest kid. I tell everyone that i am grooming him to be my best friend. I love to hang out with him one-on-one. On his B-day we went to Ruby's Diner for lunch. (we had a free B-day meal certificate) We sat at the bar and had a nice lunch. Then we went over to Bellevue to see a movie. (we had free admission tickets [Thanks]) We saw The Fantastic Mr Fox. It had George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray. It was a great movie and we had a lot of fun laughing and enjoying treats (snuck in, we can't afford the stupid prices of theatre fare) Then we went by an arcade and played a couple of games of race car driving and then hit the Photo Booth. the pics turned out great.

Then we went home for B-day dinner. Henry had asked for broccoli! We added on some salmon and wild rice to make a meal. Henry received some real tools and a fishing pole (one for me too) After he opened presents, we had cake. Henry had requested a volcano cake, so I took on the construction of it. I had to find a pump, and some tubing... Let's just say that it might very well be the only erupting birthday cake ever! Christmas has been alot of fun. As much as it sucks being unemployed, I have seriously enjoyed the time to be spent with my family. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. We play cars, dolly, and watch movies. Love it!!!!
So Henry has been asking us questions about this homeless dude that he sees on his way to take Fernie to her speech therapy every week. I explained that he does not have a home or money, nor food, nor family. A couple of days later he came to me with the idea that we should help him. I asked him what he that would be good to do. He said that we should give him some money, some socks and some finger nail clippers (?!) I thought that it was a good idea. He cleaned out his piggy bank and donated it all. $3.27. That's alot for a kid, especially when he gets it from finding it on the ground! Anyhow we added in $5 and some cookies, wrapped it up and took it to the guy. I don't know what the guy did with the money. [ i hope that it renews his faith in humanity and in God. Henry told him in a letter that God loves everyone and that praying can help you feel it] I hope that this experience helps to re-enforce Henry's charity and compassion for fellow human beings. I am reading a book tight now, The Unprocessed Child, and the gist of it is that kids inherently have many attributes that will serve them well in the world. It is our job as adults to not spoil or crush those things out of them but to give them lots of room to develop them on their own.
The kids were very excited about Christmas. The amazement of Santa and elves was palpable. We have received so much a pouring out of love and generosity to us in this season. Each of you knows who you are: Thank you!
We even caught someone leaving an envelope at our door. We drove up and I saw a guy jump into our bushes, then a couple of seconds late he comes running out with his hood over his head and runs across the yard and disappears. Very random, and cool. I think that it was one or more of the young men that I have taught. (thanks guys).
Christmas eve brought a nice dinner and the story of Christ's birth. Christmas day, of course, brought toys and fun. The coolest thing that i can think that anyone got was that Lyn took an adult, lightweight 25 degree sleeping bag and remade it into one that is sized for a little boy. They only sell 'sleep over bags' in that size. Any how now Henry can go backpacking with me in harsher conditions and it can extend our hike-able season by several months. Actually we are planning on going snow camping in Jan. We are going to build a snow cave to sleep in. It's lots of fun. (done it many times).Fern got a new dolly, and the family got the Planet Earth series.
Any how we are headed over to Ephrata to see my (Caleb's) family and spend New Years over there.
We hope that you all have had a beautiful Christmas and that the new year brings you more joy and peace. God bless you.
love the Nelsons